My sweet girl Maya Mae, my best friend in the whole world, had surgery on her airway on Wednesday, December 15. She has Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS), a condition common in bulldogs and other smooshy faced breeds. Their airways are abnormally narrow, and the structures within it are too large for the smooshed up space. For example, most commonly there is an elongated soft palate, everted and constricting laryngeal saccules, and stenotic nostrils. As a result, they are constantly struggling to breathe, and it only gets worse with age. Maya had all of these things, plus enlarged and inflamed tonsils, and barely any airflow in her nasal passages.

Her surgery trimmed the excess soft palate, removed her tonsils and laryngeal saccules, trimmed and opened her small nostrils, and opened up nasal passages.

Although surgery went well, Maya has had a tough course post operatively. The evening of her surgery, the breathing tube was meant to be pulled. However, Maya failed to breathe on her own once it was removed, and had to be reintubated. Twice. So the only other option was to put in a temporary tracheostomy, a hole in her neck that gives the trachea direct access to air (bypassing the swollen larynx airway, where all of her surgical work was done).

A tracheostomy is fragile and requires constant monitoring, so Maya is in the ICU. To make matters worse, she developed pneumonia. She has been in the ICU for 3 days and will be there for 2 more, without her family and with no visits allowed from mom. She’s in a metal oxygen tank, with intermittent walks outside to pee. Her head just be propped up on a bowl at all times so as not to obstruct her tracheostomy.

The veterinarians say that we will try to remove her temporary tracheostomy on Monday, and hope that she can breathe on her own. If she cannot, and her 9 year old respiratory system just decides it’s tired of trying, then she will need a permanent tracheostomy. That’s no easy life to live for a pup, and it takes constant management at home. If that ends up being the case, then Maya may not be brightening this world for much longer.

We miss her terribly. I am quite literally sick without her, and I can’t bring myself to do much more than cry when I think about her alone in the hospital. Since I can’t see her, I have left sweatshirts that smell like Mommy and home.

As you can imagine, the medical bills are astronomical. I was given the option multiple times to put her down for the sake of cost, but I refuse to kill her when she’s not dying. She’s a stubborn, slow, old bully girl who is taking her time to heal. Maya always does things her own way, when she wants to do them. She just needs more time than a day. I believe that, and so does her primary veterinary team.

Please, help us offset these costs. I don’t typically do this kind of thing, but we are in last resort mode. You can’t imagine the costs. ICU care averages $1000/day, to give perspective.

But Maya is my soul mate. She has always stuck by my side and rolled with the punches, no matter where we lived, who lived with us, who came to visit, how poor we were at the time, how much I was working, how little I was working, or what food I rustled up. These past few years have been very tough for me, for a variety of reasons. Through all the tragedies and disappointments, tears and screams and moves, my beautiful girl has been there to rest her head in my lap, and let me cry into her fur.

When her time comes, I will make sure she goes peacefully and comfortably. But this is not it. Any help to ensure that is forever appreciated.